Roger Crandall will become Chief Executive Officer of
Crandall, 44, has been MassMutual's president and COO since December 2008, and will retain the title of president. He succeeds Stuart Reese, who will serve as non-executive chairman of the board of directors.
"I'm honored to become the next CEO of MassMutual and have the opportunity to continue the legacy of leadership established by Stu Reese," said Crandall. "As a mutual company operating for the benefit of our policyholders, our entire organization --including our leadership team, employees and financial professionals -- is committed to continuing the long tradition of financial strength, security and stewardship we have provided to our policyholders since we were founded in 1851."
"We addressed the challenges of 2009 head on by posting record whole life insurance sales, growing our field force to 5,000 financial professionals, recording our highest sales year ever in our retirement services business, and maintaining our strong financial position," Crandall continued. "We are extremely well-positioned to build on our recent success and continue to serve the needs of our growing base of policyholders and clients. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Stu in his capacity as Chairman so we can ensure a smooth transition, build upon our strong foundation, and continue to make doing business with MassMutual a good decision for our policyholders."
"MassMutual is fortunate to have an incoming CEO with the caliber of leadership, intellect, vision and enthusiasm as Roger Crandall," said Reese. "Roger's career at MassMutual has been marked by his unmatched integrity, keen strategic focus and a relentless drive to do what's right for the customer. The Board and I continue to have complete confidence that he will do an excellent job leading this company into the future and serving our policyholders."
Crandall first joined MassMutual in 1988 and spent the first 12 years of his career in the company's investment management department. In 2000, he joined Babson Capital Management LLC, a MassMutual subsidiary. In 2002, he was named managing director at Babson Capital and head of the company's corporate bond management, public bond trading and institutional fixed income units.
In June 2005, Crandall was appointed chairman of Babson Capital and EVP and chief investment officer of MassMutual. He was appointed co-chief operating officer of MassMutual in June 2007. In this role he was accountable for Babson Capital and two other MassMutual subsidiaries - Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC and Baring Asset Management Limited - as well as MassMutual's Retirement and Financial Products businesses. In December 2008, he was named president and COO, at which point he joined the board of directors and also gained oversight of MassMutual's domestic insurance business - which includes the company's core product, whole life insurance - enterprise technology organization and MassMutual International LLC.
A Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Crandall is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a bachelor's degree in economics. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
